Stop censorship in Europe

The EU is proposing that robots should decide what can and can not be shared by us. Yep, that’s right - robots. Article 13 is a provision in the EU Copyright Reform mandating that all content uploaded to the internet be monitored by robots and potentially deleted if a likeness to existing copyrighted content is detected.

Robots do not understand when the content is used lawfully for purposes of quoting, analyzing, criticizing or educating purposes, under licenses or in remixes. We cannot allow robots to monitor our actions on the Internet and censor them.

Why does this interest me?

Robots will decide what can and can not be shared by us.

They have no sense of humor, irony, or nuance.

They do not distinguish the legitimate use of foreign authorship from piracy - they will simply wipe out.

Robots do not understand when the content is used lawfully for purposes of quoting, analyzing, criticizing or educating purposes, under licenses or in remixes.

Robots will monitor our actions on the Internet and censor them.

Robots will limit our access to knowledge.

The robots will end the open internet without the censorship Europe knew so far.

This ruling will be voted on in April 2018, alongside with another one thousand amendments to the proposal to reform EU Copyright.

Whether a creator or a consumer, everyone who uses the internet will be affected by this law — which is why we all need to speak out against it.

If you are a creator or independent business, the content that you upload to share with your audience might be deleted without your consent. Creators include but are not limited to Artists –such as Cartoonists, Gamers, Illustrators, Photographers, Documentary Filmmakers, Animators, Musicians, DJs, and Dancers,– Bloggers, Journalists, and Technologists.

Online platforms will be required to implement complex filtering systems and will be held liable for copyright infringement, potentially incurring fines that threaten their economic viability.

Article 13 would restrict the ability of internet users to consume content –meaning they won’t be able to find and enjoy diverse kinds of cultural expressions that they have grown accustomed to. The days of communicating through gifs and memes, listening to our favourite remixes online or sharing videos of our friends singing at karaoke might be coming to an end.

Ultimately, the internet culture that has emerged in recent years –a culture that enables connections and democratises information– will become bureaucratic and restrictive